Yahoo! 500 Million Accounts Stolen

Worst Hack Ever

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for Yahoo, the company has just announced that 500 million accounts have been stolen. This has been the largest data breach reported in cyber security history. According to Yahoo, the hack happened late 2014 revealing personal information. Yahoo has recently confirmed it as part of an investigation. The data stolen includes names, date of births, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords and security questions answered. It is believed by the company that the culprit is a state-sponsored actor meaning acting on behalf of a government. Other reports have been released since August 1st that a hacker by the name of “Peace” is behind the attack. The hacker claimed to have breached 200 million Yahoo accounts and offered to sell them on the dark web. No other details have been disclosed at this time. The only positive side is that no financial or banking information has been reported to be stolen. Yahoo has been working closely with the FBI in order to understand more about the breach.

What You Should Do

If you have not changed your password within the last two years first shame on you. Second, you should immediately log in and change it now. Make sure to change it to something different than all of your other passwords. It would be the equivalent of having one key on your keychain that opens everywhere you go. Go ahead and take the extra step to enable the second identifier in order to access your account. This might seem like an inconvenience to you but it will save you many headaches down the road. With cyber criminals on the rise and making headline news, you could never be protected enough. If you have been registered to Yahoo for a while you know that the company has been part of multiple data breaches. I think after this breach it will be a while before users can regain their trust.

What Is Yahoo Doing?

Besides working closely with the FBI, Yahoo has already taken a series of steps to reduce the potential impact. They have been notifying users about their accounts. They have been urging users to change their passwords and enable the second identifier on their accounts. Yahoo has invalidated unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account. The company has also taken the step to upgrade their systems which prevent unauthorized access to user accounts. Let’s hope that Yahoo who is currently being acquired by Verizon for $4.83 billion learns their lesson and upgrades their overall security. At this point, they cannot afford another data breach.